by Byron Mudry on Mar 11, 2006
By Byron "Messiah" Mudry
As I am sure every priest out there is aware, we are next on the list for revision in WoW. The proposed changes have been posted, discussed and place live on the test servers. The over all impression that I get from the proposed changes is that Blizzard is trying to give priest's a buff to healing power. While it appears to be a small one, looks can be deceptive. There are lots of players that feel this is a huge nerf to the class, and others that look at it as a blessing. I did not want to comment until I had actually tried them out, but have now had that chance. I have been playing around with the talents on the test server and I thought it would now be a good time to provide a brief review of what I have found. I have also tried to provide a list of other reviews and threads about the upcoming changes so that you can read other peoples opinions as well.
This is a very basic review of the talents, there is allot more detail that could be looked at. I will review these again once they are finalized and 1.10 is released This is just first impressions so far.
Firstly lets look at what Eyonix posted regarding the upcoming changes:
Official Talent Change Discussion Thread - by Eyonix
So the priest talent changes have been unveiled through the interactive calculator and I thought it would be a good idea to discuss what was revealed. My goal is only to outline most of the changes, so it's likely that I might have left out something small here or there. I encourage players to take an extensive pass using the calculator which has been linked in the news post I created on the front page of our website. After reading my comments, please feel free to use this thread to discuss of any aspect of the priest talents.
Going from left to right, I'll start the discussion off with the Discipline tree. You'll immediately notice that Wand Specialization has been made a first tier talent. I feel that this is great for two reasons. First, previously neither available tier 1 Discipline talents felt very exciting or rewarding when investing your points into them at early levels. I feel this is no longer the case. Second, you won't have to compete with Improved Power Word: Shield or Fortitude to receive this talent. Moving on to tier 2 talents, Silent Resolve will now reduce the threat caused by all spells, rather than simply damage spells. You're probably also noticing that Improved Power Word: Shield no longer reduces the duration of the weakened soul effect and I'm sure you're freaking out.
(Read the whole post and thread here)
You should also check out the patch notes here: Public realm 1.10 patch notes
The Holy tree has seen the most changes so I will deal with it first. One of the big changes to all healing classes in the patch is that all healing spells have their mana cost reduced by roughly 10%, meaning that all healing becomes 10% more efficient ( health per mana healed). This is great for priests, but since it applies to all healers, it doesn't make priests and better or worse than any other healing class.
Heal and Greater heal have both had their casting time reduced to 3 seconds. This allows you to cast them faster and have less chances for interruption. It also means however that you will no longer get the full +healing number from your healing gear. So expect your heal numbers to go down slightly per heal cast.
+Healing items and Casting Time
Much has been made of the drop in casting time of our greater heals. This is mainly due to the way that +healing items affect healing spells and peoples interpretation of the meaning. Blizzards exact wording is "Note that spells with less than 3.5 second cast time will not receive the full bonus from plus healing items." The part people get hooked on is "will not receive the full bonus", which is a bit of a misnomer.
How +healing items work is that they provide a bonus up to a maximum number and divide it by the amount of time it takes to cast based on this formula: +healing Final = +Healing x (Casting Time / 3.5)
So if you look at the final output it really just provides an even increase to all healing depending on the time of the cast. While your max amount healed will go down, the healing over time will remain exactly the same.
Holy nova has undergone a complete revamp and is now an 11 point talent that both heals all part members in the AOE and damages all enemies. What's even better is that it is now an instant with no cool down and causes no threat. It is fairly expensive though and does very little damage or healing. It is fun to have some AOE as a priest though.
The new Spiritual guidance ability is amazing! It is a new 21 point talent that grants +healing and +damage equal to 5 - 25% of your spirit to all spells. With even a lowly 200 spirit this equates to +50 healing and damage. This is almost equivalent to having an additional epic +healing item. The only thing that sets it back for me is that it is a 21 point talent, meaning I can not go with shadow form and spiritual guidance. This was more than likely done on purpose as together those abilities would ROCK! To me this is a must have for all holy spec priests.
At the 26 talent point level spirit of redemption has been redone and instead of appearing as a ghost that does a set amount of healing to all party members it now allows you to cast any healing spell free for 10 seconds when you die. I see this as both a blessing and a curse. On the up side it allows you to save your tank for sure with 3 back to back heals, on the other side though your secondary party members are far less likely to get healed. One trick to learn with this ability is to select your target, start casting and then select your next target before you are finished casting so that you can be ready to cast the second the first heal is complete. If done correctly you should be able to get 3 greater heals in without any problem.
The Holy tree also has a new top level 31 point talent called Lightwell. What this does is drop a lightwell near the priest that allows up to 5 players to drink from it and heal up to 1600 health over 10 seconds. While not a huge healing amount it can be nice after extended fights rather than having everyone eat or bandage. While a nice idea, I have not found it to be overly useful, maybe others will though.
Overall, I really like the changes to the holy tree. I haven't done the math on all the spells yet, but in game it feels like you are capable of doing more healing than before. I lost some of the big number heals but was doing more heals more often for very good numbers. With the speed increases also you are more likely to make that save on someone as their health bar plummets.
The next tree to look at is the Discipline tree. This tree has also seen many changes, though not as many as the holy tree.
Silent resolve now reduces all threat from spells not just damage spells. This could become a core ability for holy priests since it will reduce the chance of pulling aggro while healing the main tank.
Next Improved Power Word: Shield has been changed. It no longer reduces the weakened soul effect (since the ability has had its weakened soul effect reduced to 15 seconds anyway) but increases the amount of damage absorbed by 15%. This change saves you a few talent points or allows your shields to take more damage, at your choice.
Inner Focus moves from being a 21 point talent to an 11 point talent. Which makes it far easier to get and better yet it is now a 3 minute cool down. This is another must have for holy spec as it allows you to get of a free greater heal every three minutes saving a bunch of mana.
The new 31 point talent is called power infusion and is very similar to Arcane power. It grants a party member and increase of 20% to spell damage and healing for 15 seconds. It is on a 3 minute cool down and can be very effective. The biggest down side to me is that you need to max Discipline instead of holy or shadow which are where I see the real power. That is just my play style though as I know many players swear by the Discipline tree over the others.
The Discipline tree to me has improved as well. The change I really like is the inner focus move from the 21 slot to the 11 slot. This can make a big difference in long fights as it gives you that free heal every 3 minutes with a bigger to crit chance.
Even though this is my favorite tree, I left it for last simply because it has seen the fewest changes. A few talents were rearranged but in general it is the same as before.
One very nice change is the addition of improved vampiric embrace. Many people underestimated the healing provided by vampiric embrace at the base 20% of shadow damage. At 30% it's hard to ignore. I have been in a few groups that had an extra priest or healer where I was able to go shadow form and do DPS instead of healing. Everyone in the groups was amazed at the healing being provided, and the dedicated healer was very shocked when they showed up a distant second on the healing list. While this puts out a ton of healing it is to everyone and is not enough on its own to save a main tank that is being pummeled on.
I really don't have much to say on the shadow tree. I like the improved vampiric embrace, but would have liked a bit more change in the tree. Then again shadow priests tend to be devastating at PvP already.
Comments? Flames? Other guides or reviews of 1.10 priest talents that you want me to add to the list? As always I would love to hear from you either in our forums or via email at messiah@tentonhammer.com .